The Sight Beyond The Haze

Chapter 8: First Incident Where A Masked Entity Appeared

I was blown out of the way before I realized that there were falling debris from above me.

It was just a flash of a person, barely noticeable, but it was the very first time that I saw them. I was not even certain if it was a person really, they were like a contrast of a glitter and of a shadow. Almost like a phantom of some sorts.

There was one thing I was certain though.

They were wearing a frowning mask.

And fluttering wings of golden butterflies flew around me.

But that happened later on this day.

Going back to the beginning of my day, I was only walking near one of the building that the academy was renovating. I was there for a stupid reason; Layla Gwen humiliated Bianca yet again and she ran away from the gymnasium we were having our physical education class in.

I don't think it was anything personal though. At least not to Bianca, but Layla Gwen, being a person who often gets what she wanted, would do that to anyone. It just happened that Bianca was in the same situation wherein she fell directly within Layla Gwen's grasp of humiliation, a shining red target. Like a bull, Layla went ahead and surged on to target Bianca.

It was not Bianca's fault, of course, and maybe I should be more severe to Layla when she did that.

I winced slightly when I remembered what she did.

It was our class against Layla's on a friendly volleyball match. Though it was not a serious match, Bianca was really giving her everything on this one as if she was determined to leave Layla's class on dust. Unfortunately, Layla was having none of that. At first set, she clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes to Bianca who was Bianca celebrating the class' first win.

"Seraphim!" Bianca called to me, and waved her hand to my general direction. "We won!"

I nodded at her encouragingly and waved back, but my eyes were glued to Layla who was holding a suspicious tumbler of liquid. The liquid inside sloshed around the bottle, almost like a water, but it was suspicious because she never drank from it, nor did anyone.

Before I could watch Layla further, an annoyance occured in the name of Caspian Cashel. What was up with him and appearing everywhere I go?

"Hey, Seraphim!" he greeted.

"Caspian," I greeted him back and nodded my head once as another acknowledgement to him.

"Fancy seeing you here, eh?" he said enthusiastically. I nodded again. "What's with the lukewarm response? Kinda feeling that you don't want me here."

I just continued looking at him. I was wondering if he did not feel like that right now. Did I not always face him this way? I don't like how he felt and acted like we were friends when, in reality, we were not. He also liked to get close to me... physically.

As I was thinking of that, he already sat beside me in one of the bleachers away from the actual game, with just a few inches distance from me.

"How did you got away?" he asked suddenly, his shoulders shrugging at the crowd from below the bleachers we were sitting at.

"I sprained my ankle," I said placidly.

Caspian immediately looked at me with a wide-eyed and shocked expression. His eyes glided towards my bandaged ankle.

"What?" he asked incredulously.

I just nodded at him, hoping that the lack of information would prevent him for talking further because I was growing tired of hearing his voice.

"What happened?" he instead asked me.

I frowned at my ankle, which was actually directed at Caspian himself. I just cannot directly frown at him since I do not want to offend him, but I should have known he would be more curious and talk more. Now the peace I industriously built around myself was shattered like a piece of fragile glass.

"Track and field," I responded jadedly, "then I tripped."

"Again? I told you to be careful, didn't I?" he reminded me. "You should've been. Now look at poor you, can't even join in on the fun!"

Poor me was actually joyful that I could not 'join' on the so-called fun of the match. Besides that, Caspian himself was here, beside me and sitting luxuriously, not having a care in the world.

I just pursed my lips, and did not provide any comment further.

He was supposed to say something else, his lips were already poised to create sounds, but there was a shriek from the game that distracted both of our attention away from each other. In a matter of seconds, we were already standing up.

I could only hear distant form of words from where I was sitting, and it was not exactly they were whispering to each other. From here, I could see Bianca's already flushed face getting a shade darker, almost purplish. She was on one side of the court with her teammates which were our classmates.

Layla Gwen, however, was snickering with her friends. There was a hand demurely covering her lips as she laughed quiety.

There was an involuntary sigh that escaped my mouth. Then it was followed by another deep sigh as Caspian, who was standing by my side, also burst out laughing. The snickers and joyful jeers against Bianca echoed in the enormous gymnasium, bouncing off the walls and amplifying it to a considerably louder volume.

Exactly those same snickers and jeers made her face turned a shade again, this time it was almost blue. When she whipped her head to where Caspian, who was still laughing so hard he was clutching his stomach, I felt my heart sank lower. She was about to cry, and that would only make matters worst than it already was.

Caspian Cashel, Layla Gwen, and her friends would only jeer and sneer at her.

"Oops!" Layla mocked at Bianca who was sitting on a pool of clear liquid on the floor.

Even from such a distance, the pool of liquid on where Bianca slammed her bottom suspiciously smelled like kerosene. I was too far away from them to do anything, much less help Bianca. I quickly ran downwards the bleachers, but Bianca was already speed-firing Layla with her words.

"Why are you doing this!" Bianca roared at Layla who manipulated her expression quickly into a more amiable one. "Just because we are winning, doesn't mean that you should do this to win yourself! You sore loser! I can't believe it!"

"Miss Taylor!" one of the instructors scolded Bianca. "Please apologize to Miss Gwen immediately."

"I won't! I've had it with you!" she directed the last sentence to Layla who was still innocently watching her. "You caused this, didn't you!"

"I didn't do anything," Layla denied, "and I'm sorry if you are offended," she apologized in a patronizing and condescending manner. "You're winning already, you don't have to rub it off our noses and say it so expressively. Besides, why are you even so worked up? It's just a friendly match!"

"Friendly match?" Bianca spat back, her tone was dripping with acid towards the ither girl. "You just hated losing!"

"It's not my fault that you are so fat, you can't even handle your own weight and slipped on your stupidity," Layla, however, reinforced with a fiercer tone, "on behalf of all the inches of your width, I am sorry."

What was more annoying was that Layla already apologized, but it was not in the least sincere. Instead, Layla made it looked like it was easy to do and now, everyone was expecting Bianca to show favorable reaction so that whole affair wouldn't escalate.

I don't know what was up with her, but she seemed bolder right now. I barely hear her shout before, this was actually a first for me, but now she was hauling words and growling at Layla frankly.

"Miss Taylor?" our instructor inquired her when she remained silent, her bottom soaking in the kerosene. "You have to apologize for falsely accusing Miss Gwen, she already apologized despite not doing anything. It's your turn now."

"No, I won't!" Bianca responded angrily.

Now, it looked like Bianca was the one who was trying to challenge everyone to a fight.

"Bianca," I called to her, but she was already speeding out of the scene. With a one last humiliation, she slipped yet again with a cry of pain. There was liquid kerosene pouring down her legs that was washed over with it from where she was lying earlier.

I ran towards her, but she already stood. There was a noticeable limp when she ran. I started to follow her, but Caspian was already behind me. He held one of my arms, and there was that incredulous expresson on his face again.

"I thought you sprained your ankle? You might get worse it if you run like this." His eyes went down to my my bandaged ankle, hinting at my injury.

I did not answered him and broke free from where he grasp me, pursuing Bianca. If she has a limp, she won't be far ahead and she was crying so her vision would be blurred, her concentration would decrease.

"Bianca!" I called out to her. I stopped running and started walking instead. "Where are you? It's Seraphim," I said to no one in particular, hoping that Bianca would hear me.

I looked up at where I was and realized I have gone too far astray from the gymnasium, though not as far that I wouldn not be able to see it. It was just this part of the academy, this building in particular actually, was temporarily closed off to the students for renovation.

I looked around me, my feet have already decided that I won't go any further in the building. Was it likely that Bianca would go in?

I frowned at the sounds coming from the construction workers, and turned my back at the building.

Then it happened.

My feet were suddenly off the ground I was standing on and there was the foreboding noise of the metal clanking against metal. Then a scaffolding fell from the higher stories of the building. I closed my eyes tightly and my hands shielded my face, my body reacting automatically towards the danger. There was a stiff pressure on both of my hands and a coldness from behind me.

When I opened my eyes in little slits, there was a masked person carrying me and golden butterflies fluttering about the air. It was both a terrifying and beautiful scene. The hands on my back and behind my knees that were carrying me were cold to the touch. Flying around, the golden butterflies glowed brighter as dust exploded that was caused by the falling scaffolding's impact to the ground.

But when the dust settled, there were none of the butterflies nor the masked person.

The mask, from my hazy memory, was a plain black with a frowning face with it. Two crescent slits for the eyes, and another crescent slit for the lips but both of the ends of the crescent shape were pointing downwards.

There was not a remnant of anything, except for the still settling dust on the ground and the broken scaffolding.

From above the building, construction workers looked down to me. Horror and mortification were reflected on their faces as they saw a girl standing in the midst of the chaos. There were shouts of panic and shock, but my attention fixated on the one thing that occured and vanished almost as soon as it appeared.

"Not a single scratch," a hollow voice behind me rang, almost unnoticeable in the middle of the stomping feet of the construction workers and thei supervisors, "I see," Haziel Imbert added again.

I looked from behind me and saw her there. She was standing with a lazy accent on her enigmatic eyes, a small smirk on her face appeared slowly. Just like me, she was wearing her black and white uniform that was required by the academy. The only difference between our uniforms was that hers was still in immaculate condition, while mine was dusted and where the clean patches of clothes covering my body there were only grime and dirt.

Her dark eyes seemed to be darkened further. She looked small, but also commanding with her intimidating air.

Before I have the chance to ask her. I was seized by my shoulder gently and was asked repeatedly what had happened. I ignored them and looked around me.

Where did they went to?

But I never got any answer, and Haziel also started to walk away. I excused myself with the concerned people flocking around my person and ran after her, not minding if my body was also untouched by the rubble.

"Do you know what happened?" I demanded at Haziel.

She stopped walking, and when I thought she would turn around, she only just looked at me from behind her vibrant hair.

"You don't need to know," she whispered at me.

"But I do," I defied her, I walked a step or two closer to her, "how am I suppose to not care now?"

"Of all the things around you, be careful," she only said then started to walk, she did not even looked at me.

My brows almost met with her cryptic statement. I contemplated on what to do, if I force her, what would come next, but she already left me looking baffled and puzzled of what had happened. Who was that masked person? What was with the golden butterflies?

"Seraphim!" Bianca suddenly said. "Are you in shock? We've been asking you how you are, you never answered. What is it? Sera? Seraphim!"

It was until when Bianca was already in front of me, waving her palms at a very close distance from my eyes, that I was snapped back to reality.

"I'm okay," I answered, but I was still in a daze.

"Did you—" Bianca said to me breathlessly, her eyes seemed to be redder than before "—did you went after me? Oh my! You almost got trampled by that! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I think you hit your head though."

I assured and reassured Bianca that there was nothing wrong with me, not even a small graze. Though I was fine, I was certain I do not looked like it when my uniform just collected dirt. Bianca and even the construction workers, who were begging for me to forgive them, insisted that I have to be brought back to the infirmary.

The infirmary nurse filed the report of my incident. She did a whole body inspection of me, and ordered me to stay the afternoon and the night inside the infirmary.

I was laying in one of the comfortable beds, everything flashed before my closed eyelids. When I fell asleep, I dreamt of the masked person.

In my dream, just like what happened in the building where the scaffolding fell, golden butterflies were fluttering by. They were precious and delicate, lighting the darkened room and leading me to somewhere.

I was barefoot and the tiled floor was cold to the touch, almost causing my feet to ache from the coldness.

At the very end of the hallway was the masked person. This time, though the crescent shape that was their mask's lips, was quite different from reality. One end of the crescent shape was pointing upwards, while the other was the opposite which was pointing downwards.

He was wearing black garments all over and his built was almost as close to me, slender with a bit of muscle, though he was quite taller than me by mere inches.

"You're ugly!" I roared at him. My voice surprised me, it was harsh and violent as though I was seeking a fight with the masked person. "I keep telling you to get away from me! Who are you!"

"Seraphim?" another voice called out to me, it was a familiar baritone voice and when I looked at the direction where it came from, I was not disappointed of the person that greeted me with a warm smile.

"Zachriel," I called to him in an annoyingly whiny voice that I have a difficulty identifying as mine, "you're here!"

In reality and in my imagination, Zachriel still beheld his handsome countenance. Just then, I started noticing a small black c***k on his smooth skin of his cheek slowly making its way towards his eye.

I shrieked and pushed him away from me, but there was only so much space this closed corridor that confined the both of us could provide for that push to be effective.

He was still smiling, but the warmth of that smile has turned into a shuddering mortifying one. A smile of a broken body. His face's cracks was fast spreading on his whole face and not only just his eyes.

I shrieked and screamed, then I ran.

With heart pounding in a slowly accelerating speed, it did not take me a few steps before I stopped to rest. Exhaustion gripped at my legs and it felt like my chest was constricting on its own, unable to inhale any air.

I staggered down until my whole body was suddenly lying on the tiled floors. Out of nowhere, mirrors started to closed in on my position. When I stared at my reflection on the looking glass, my dark hair was sprawled all over my face, I saw not myself but the masked person.

That was when I realized I was not wearing my own clothing any longer, but a long white robe with wide sleeves and I was lying on the cold hard ground.

They were looking at me through the slits of the crescent shaped eyes of their mask which has turned white, unlike of what I initially saw from the beginning.

They were looking at me, and I was looking at them.

Descending gently on the body of the masked person, which was currently also my own body, were the golden butterflies. They appeased with the coolness that I was feeling, bringing warmth and comfort in my body.

I reached out for one delicate golden butterfly and it rested on my forefinger, shining atop of my whole body and lying languidly as though it was already familiar to me. The light that was being emitted by those golden butterflies were touched with elegance and purity.

It was bright without being blinding, almost comforting me in a way I never thought possible. It filled me with warmth.

A voice whispered on my ear, soft and gentle. It was lulling me to go to sleep with every word and the hush of the wind in between the butterflies' wings were bringing deep solace in my mind.

I looked above and saw that there was also a mirror reflecting me or the masked person. This body's white robes spread wide in the middle of the mirrors in the four direction. Through those crescent shaped slits of the eyes in the mask, I could still feel their gaze. My hair was a harsh dark color against the fairness of the robes and the mask that I was wearing. Though the butterflies provided me warmth; I still feel cold deep to my bones. Almost fading, but not quiet really.

"And if you want all that was beautiful in the world," they whispered to me quietly in that soft alluring voice. My eyelids became heavy and my forefinger that I was holding the lone butterfly with, automatically fell down, disrupting the butterflies that settled on my sides.

"Then I will be everything and anything," they finished in a hushed whisper.

All that remained of the dream was me longing for the comfort and the warmth provided by those butterflies.